Dutch banks increase financing for SMEs

The major Dutch banks are investing more in SMEs after years of restrictions. NLInvesteert, which has arranged about 1.3 billion euros in financing for SMEs since its founding in 2015, has noticed this change. Recently, banks have also been increasingly involved in investments made through the platform.

“We are now seeing a clear shift,” said director Dirkjan Takke in a new data update. “Where banks were involved in about 30 percent of the financing we arranged in 2023 and 2024, that has risen to around 50 percent this year. That is a significant increase.”

According to Takke, the three major Dutch banks are participating in this. They are also said to be offering more competitive interest rates. He calls this a positive development because entrepreneurs can finance their growth ambitions under more favorable conditions. Takke does not yet know how long the banks will maintain this approach. “It’s possible that banks want to secure their market share,” he suggested.

“I do have some doubts about whether this is really a turning point,” said Takke. In recent years, hybrid financing, like the kind NLInvesteert provides with the help of private investors, has become increasingly important. According to the platform, one of the reasons is ‘the retreat of banks that, due to regulations, want to take on less risk.’”

In the second quarter, NLInvesteert provided about 66 million euros in new financing. Of the 1.3 billion euros financed through the platform so far, more than 757 million euros came from private investors. These investors can earn returns on their investments. According to the figures, the net return remained stable at 7.9 percent in the first half of this year.